# Poly vs Conductor for a team working with coding agents

Conductor is built for engineers running many agents at once. Poly is built for a team, coders or not, steering one.

Published 2026-10-05 by Richard Kaminsky and Mitchell Lipyansky, the co-founders of Poly. Canonical: https://usepoly.co/poly-vs-conductor
Poly is a multiplayer AI coding workspace: a shared room where your team works with one AI agent, together. Free to start: https://usepoly.co/

**Conductor and Poly both let a team work with coding agents together, and they start from opposite ends. Conductor, from Melty Labs, is a Mac app for running many agents in parallel (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode), each in its own git worktree. Since July 30, 2026, Conductor Cloud runs them in hosted sandboxes, and its paid plans add multiplayer: teammates open the same workspace, watch the transcript live and prompt its agents together. You bring your own subscriptions or API keys. Poly (usepoly.co) is a browser room built around one shared agent: everyone sees each turn, any member can approve a change before it lands, every turn ends with a receipt, and the models are included.** Conductor is for engineers who want more agents. Poly is for a team, technical or not, that wants one agent it steers together.

## Key takeaways

- Conductor runs many agents at once on your own subscriptions. Poly runs one shared agent per room, with the models included.
- Both are multiplayer now: Conductor shares cloud workspaces on its Pro and Teams plans, and Poly's rooms are shared by default.
- Approvals differ. Conductor's tool approval began as an enterprise setting, and its local agents run without a sandbox. In Poly, any member can approve each change in the modes that ask, and every turn runs in a sandbox.
- Conductor is a Mac app with an iOS app. Poly runs in a browser.

*Poly and Conductor, from Conductor's docs, changelog and pricing, October 5, 2026.*

|  | Poly | Conductor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| What it is | A browser room with one shared AI agent | A Mac app for running many agents in parallel |
| Agents | Claude Code and Codex, run by Poly | Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode |
| Models | Claude, GPT, Grok, Kimi or Muse, included | Your own subscriptions or API keys |
| Working together | Shared rooms; multi-agent mode for branches | Shared cloud workspaces on Pro and Teams |
| Approve before the AI acts | Any member, per change, in the modes that ask | A tool-approval setting, first offered on Enterprise |
| Where agents run | A sandbox on Poly's servers | Your Mac without a sandbox, or Vercel sandboxes |
| Who spent what | A receipt per turn, per person | Billed by your model provider |
| Chat the AI can't read | Yes | Not in its docs |
| Platforms | Any browser | macOS app and iOS app |
| Price | Free start; $20 or $50 per person who runs the AI | Free locally; Pro $50 a month; Teams $60 per user |

## What is Conductor?

[Conductor](https://www.conductor.build) is a desktop app for running a team of coding agents, made by Melty Labs, which raised a $22 million Series A in March 2026. Each workspace is a git worktree with its own branch, chats and review flow, and the app runs the first-party Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and OpenCode agents. It says more than 100,000 builders use it. The desktop app is Mac only for now; an iOS app for chatting with agents and merging pull requests shipped on October 2, 2026.

Conductor Cloud ([0.78.0, July 30, 2026](https://www.conductor.build/changelog/0.78.0-introducing-conductor-cloud)) runs agents in isolated Linux sandboxes hosted by Vercel. In a cloud organization, [workspaces are shared](https://www.conductor.build/docs/cloud/collaboration): members open the same chats, see who is active and typing, follow work, reassign it, and the transcript updates live for everyone. Private workspaces arrived in September.

## How does a team work together in each?

**Conductor.** A teammate opens your cloud workspace from a link and prompts the same agents, or starts another chat against the same files. Work ends in Conductor's review flow: a diff viewer whose comments go back to the agent, checks, then a pull request and a merge from inside the app. GitHub is required.

**Poly.** Everyone opens the same room in a browser. Anyone can prompt; prompts queue and run in order, and every turn streams to everyone. In "ask before big steps" or "ask about everything", each proposed edit or command is a plain-language card on every screen, and whoever decides first, decides. A group chat with threads and polls sits beside the timeline, and the AI can't read it. Every turn is a commit with a receipt naming who ran it and what it cost, and anyone can undo it. To work in parallel, the room's owner turns on multi-agent mode, which gives each member their own agent on their own branch.

## Where Conductor is stronger

- **Many agents at once.** Parallel worktrees are the product, with stacks, Graphite and Linear around them.
- **A mature review loop.** Diff comments go back to the agent, then checks, a pull request and the merge, without leaving the app; a merge is blocked if the pull request changed on GitHub.
- **Your own subscriptions.** Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor and OpenCode plans or keys all work, and Conductor doesn't resell model usage.
- **The extras of a bigger product:** SOC 2 Type II, an API, a mobile app and several releases a week.

## Where Poly is stronger

- **A say before each change.** In the modes that ask, any member approves or rejects a change before the AI makes it. Conductor's tool approval started as an enterprise setting, and its local agents run on your Mac without a sandbox.
- **People who don't code.** A browser link, plain-language cards, a live preview and no keys to set up. Conductor needs a Mac or its iOS app, GitHub, and your own agent subscriptions or keys.
- **A chat the AI can't read,** for arguing about the plan before anyone prompts.
- **Receipts.** Every turn names who ran it and what it cost.
- **Five labs included:** Claude, GPT, Grok, Kimi or Muse, picked per member, with nothing to connect.
- **Watch links** let anyone, with no account, follow a room live.

## Pricing, side by side

[Conductor](https://www.conductor.build/pricing) is free for local workspaces on your Mac. Pro is $50 a month and adds Conductor Cloud, multiplayer with up to five Pro users, the API and the mobile app. Teams is $60 per user a month and invite-only. Model usage runs on your own subscriptions or keys, and cloud compute isn't metered yet. Poly is free to start with no card; each person who runs the AI pays $20 for Pro or $50 for Max, models included, and watching, chatting and approving are free.

## Which should you pick?

- **You're engineers who want five agents working at once, each on its own branch:** Conductor.
- **Your team includes people who don't code, and everyone should see and approve changes:** Poly.
- **You already pay for Claude Max or ChatGPT Pro and want to use it:** Conductor.
- **You want the AI included, with a receipt for every turn:** Poly.
- **You're on Windows or Linux:** Poly, in a browser. Conductor's desktop app is Mac only for now.

Other tools in this space are in [Multiplayer AI tools](/multiplayer-ai-tools), and Nimbalyst's take on Conductor is in [Poly vs Nimbalyst](/poly-vs-nimbalyst).

## Common questions

**Is Conductor multiplayer?**

Yes. Since Conductor Cloud launched on July 30, 2026, workspaces in a cloud organization are shared: teammates open the same chats, see who is active and prompt the agents together. It needs the Pro plan, $50 a month for up to five Pro users, or Teams.

**Does Conductor work on Windows?**

Not yet. Its docs say it isn't available for Windows or Linux, though there is an iOS app. Poly runs in any browser.

**Do I need my own Claude or ChatGPT subscription?**

For Conductor, yes: you bring subscriptions or API keys, and it doesn't resell model usage. Poly includes the models in its plans, so nobody needs a key.

**Can Conductor and Poly work on the same repository?**

Yes, through GitHub. Conductor works in branches and pull requests, and a Poly room connected to the same repository pushes its turns to a branch.

More guides: https://usepoly.co/guides · Security: https://usepoly.co/security · Pricing: https://usepoly.co/pricing